Town looks to PILOT, conflicts of interest as top issues for Eisgruber's term

As the administration of University Provost Christopher Eisgruber ’83 begins to work with the local town government, an item high on its agenda will be renegotiating the University’s monetary contribution to the town.

Mayor Liz Lempert, who is acquainted with Eisgruber, said that she was glad to see someone who is already a member of the local community take on the presidency and that her first priority at this time is congratulating Eisgruber and the University on his selection.

At the University press conference announcing his selection as president on Sunday, Eisgruber said that at the local level, he hopes to find ways to strengthen the civic partnership between the University and the town, of which he is a longtime resident.

"I look forward to working with Mayor Lempert and her colleagues in the years ahead," he said.

With consolidation, a chance for a better relationship

Eisgruber’s administration will have the task of re-establishing the sometimes-rocky relationship that President Tilghman’s administration had with the local government over the University’s development plans.

The Arts and Transit Neighborhood, a development project that was the brainchild of President Tilghman’s administration, was at the center of a period of strained negotiations between the University and the local community. The complex, which will include performance and rehearsal spaces as well as a relocated train station, is under construction in the Alexander Street corridor near Forbes College and is scheduled to open in 2017.

Tilghman called the Arts and Transit Neighborhood “the most challenging issue” her administration faced in working with the community. She was optimistic that Eisgruber’s administration would have a better relationship with the town government, saying that she thought the consolidation of the two former municipal governments, which went into effect this year, would ease the relationship.

“I think the circumstances are very fertile at the moment for a much better relationship between the University and the community,” Tilghman explained. “I think President-elect Eisgruber is going to benefit enormously from the fact that he will be working with a consolidated community as opposed to two separate communities, as we were forced to do.”

Now that the Arts and Transit Neighborhood is settled and underway, local officials have shifted their focus to other issues. Princeton Councilwoman Jo Butler, who opposed the University’s plan to move the train station further southward, said that she thought the new administration would create an opportunity for the town and the University to “get on a better footing.”

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“I hope we can have an easier relationship,” Butler said. “I think communication is going to be critical.”

PILOT, conflicts of interest among town priorities

Local officials said that one of the priorities in town-gown relations for the coming year would be renegotiating the voluntary payment-in-lieu-of-taxes contribution that the University makes annually to the town’s operating budget, known as the PILOT. The University’s 2013 payment totaled nearly $2.5 million, making its payment smaller than the PILOTs paid by many of its peer institutions in monetary terms but among the largest payments of its kind when considered as a fraction of the town’s annual budget.

Lempert said that the town government would enter negotiations later this year to determine what contribution the University will make to the town’s 2014 operating budget. Lempert expressed interest in negotiating a longer-term agreement that would fix the University’s payment over the coming five to seven years, something that both parties have waited to negotiate until Tilghman’s successor takes office. Lempert stated last fall that she would like to see the University increase its contribution.

At recent meetings, the Princeton Council has discussed establishing a new policy regulating the conflicts of interest that sometimes require members to recuse themselves from individual votes of the Council. The proposed legislation would set new guidelines for disclosing affiliations and consulting attorneys about potential conflicts of interest. It may include a provision dealing particularly with the University as the town’s largest private entity and an entity with which many local officials have ties.

Councilwoman Heather Howard, who is a professor in the Wilson School, regularly recuses herself from votes on matters related to the University. As Lempert’s husband is a tenured professor in the psychology department, her affiliation with the University has been a source of disagreement in recent months. In January, other Council members opposed her decision not to recuse herself from a discussion to approve the University’s 2013 PILOT.

Lempert said that the proposed law would not impact her own interaction with the Council and decisions of when to recuse herself.

Butler said that she would like to see the upcoming negotiations consider other ways that the University may contribute to the community, in addition to the PILOT agreement itself. She explained that she would like to see the town and the University work together to identify additional ways that the University can contribute to the community beyond simply monetary support.

“I’d like to see us move away from talking simply about a PILOT payment to a broader discussion,” Butler said. “There are a lot of things I think we could have discussed when coming to that agreement.”

“I think there are a lot of reasons that would be in the best interest of the University and would serve the town well,” Butler added. “Other college towns are doing that, and I think it’s to good effect for everyone.”

Butler also said that she would like to see the University and town discuss the New Jersey Department of Transportation’s plans to redesign Route 1 and said she hoped that they could find a shared interest and perhaps present to the state a united position on the matter.

Princeton Tour Company owner Mimi Omiecinski said that she would prefer to see the town and the University collaborate on local tourism, which has been on the rise in the area for the past three years. Rather than focusing the town’s efforts on renegotiating the PILOT as a boon to the local economy, she explained, she would like to see the government and the University administration collaborate to make the local tourism industry more profitable.

“It’s a humongous opportunity. I think PILOTS and discussions of those things are fine. To me, it’s antiquated. Someday we will look at notions like PILOTs and realize that we were fighting for pennies when there were thousands of dollars in our reach,” Omiecinski said.

She explained that she would like to see the town implement initiatives to make local tourism more profitable, such as requiring tour buses parked on Nassau Street to have permits and embracing the University’s globally recognized brand in building the town’s reputation in the tourism world.

Omiecinski explained that she saw the development of the tourism industry as the role of the town government rather than the University administration, but that she thought the town could find fruitful opportunities to collaborate with the University on the issue of tourism.

“What I’ve found is that the University responds to what the town requests,” Omiecinski explained, saying that she thought the assumption of many people in the town that the University’s goals were often one-sided was misguided. “As a small business owner, all I see is them collaborating [with the town].”

Lempert said that another priority of town-gown relations over the next few years would be attempts to develop better social integration between the University community and local residents, citing the new Community Walk program and other efforts to encourage students to cross to the other side of Nassau Street.

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